


Therapeutic Effects

by laurelnose



Series: witchers being weird [2]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Injuries That Would Be Serious But They're Witchers, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Pre-Relationship, Purring Witchers (The Witcher)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26486143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurelnose/pseuds/laurelnose
Summary: The circumstances under which Lambert discovers Cat witchers can purr are…less than ideal.
Relationships: Aiden/Lambert (The Witcher)
Series: witchers being weird [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1791910
Comments: 13
Kudos: 181





	Therapeutic Effects

**Author's Note:**

> [tosses idea out into world] sometimes purring is a stress response and i want more whump with unhappy purring STAT

Three days ago, a witcher had gone into the forest after a beast and hadn’t returned.

“Oh, he killed the beast all right,” the ealdorman told him. “We found its body burnt to a crisp near its caves.”

“What do you need me for, then?” Lambert asked waspishly. These people had clearly already left a witcher to rot somewhere in their woods, and he felt disinclined to be polite.

“Well, the caves aren’t cleared! There’s somethin’ in them still, making an awful growling noise. We’ll pay you everything we were goin’ to pay him.”

Money was money, and Lambert found the caves pretty quick; smell of fiend dung was unmistakable, even under the charred odor from the remains of the burned fiend corpse. Not just a fiend corpse, either. From inside he could indeed hear a strange, quiet rumbling noise, echoing off the tunnel walls.

Weird. He’d never heard a monster make a noise like that.

He knocked back Cat and Thunderbolt and drew silver, entering the cave with caution. The signs of fiend habitation were everywhere, shed hair and territorial clawmarks in the stone obvious, and few things were willing to share den space with a fiend, so whatever had moved in must have moved in after the fiend was dead—

In the back of the otherwise empty cave lay an all-too-familiar witcher.

The rumbling noise stopped as Aiden cracked a smile, propping himself up on one arm at the sight of Lambert. “Hey, mutt. All that toxicity for me?”

“Yeah, I’ve been sent to put you down, moggie,” Lambert said automatically, then (after a careful look around the cave to be sure something wasn’t going to jump out at him) sheathed his sword and crossed the cave to crouch by Aiden, examining the bloody patch on his trouser leg. “Shit. What the fuck happened?”

“Fiend broke my leg and killed my horse,” Aiden said. “Killed it back, but my potion bag got smashed. I’m fine, just not going anywhere—ooh—careful.” As Lambert probed gently at the area to surmise the damage, the rumbling noise started back up again, rising and falling with Aiden’s chest.

He paused. “Wait, are _you_ the growling thing in the caves?”

“Fuck off, I’m purring,” Aiden snapped, in between purrs.

“You—” Lambert stopped, trying to figure out what piece of that he wanted to address first. “You’re _purring_? _Why_?”

Aiden shoved him hard in the shoulder, and Lambert let himself be pushed over, laughing. “Melitele’s tits, you’re _actually_ a fucking cat.”

“It promotes _bone regrowth_ , you _asshole_ ,” Aiden said, and didn’t stop purring. Lambert picked himself up, sitting down against the wall next to Aiden. Arm to arm like this, he could feel the gentle vibration of the Cat’s body. Now that Lambert had made the connection, the rumbling _did_ sound like purring, but definitely stressed; the noise was raspy and panting rather than the even, regular noise he’d heard from cats who were too far away to have noticed him yet. “Helps with pain too—ah.” Aiden shifted, then added defensively, “I don’t have any potions, so this is what I’ve got.”

Lambert fished a Swallow out of his potion belt and handed it over. “How long were you planning on staying here purring yourself back to health?”

“A week, maybe? I was counting on this being a fiend den to ward off predators.” Aiden downed the Swallow and handed the vial back to Lambert, making a face. “Ugh, your Swallow always tastes _terrible_.”

“Gift horses, mouths.” Back into the belt the vial went. Good glass was not to be wasted. “Do real cats purr when they’re hurt too? Always thought it was a thing they only did when they were happy.”

“I’ve heard they do. Never got close enough to one to know.”

“And Cat witchers purr when they’re happy like real cats?”

“I—sometimes?” Aiden looked at him sidelong.

“And is this a thing you can control, or does it just…happen?”

“Lambert, are you asking me why I’ve never purred at _you_?”

“No,” Lambert said. Too defensive. Shit. “I’m just _curious_ , is all. It’s not like the Wolf mutagens make me lick people’s faces when I’m happy or anything like that.”

Aiden knocked his shoulder into Lambert’s. “People think it’s weird,” he said. “So I don’t do it unless I think it’s gonna help. And there aren’t a lot of social situations where it seems like it’d be helpful.”

“It’s weird as fuck,” Lambert said, returning the shoulder nudge. “But I like it.”

“…Tell me that again when I’m not doing it because my leg’s in two fucking pieces,” Aiden said, corners of his mouth twitching. He shifted, testing the integrity of his leg, and let his purr trail off. “Mm. Can probably hobble now, if you help me. Think I’m too late to collect on the fiend contract?”

“Yep. It’s now the ‘contract on the growling thing on the caves,’ and they already promised it to me,” Lambert said, slinging Aiden’s arm over his shoulders and helping him up onto his one good foot. 

“Damn. No chance you’d share it with me, huh?”

“I can be negotiated with,” Lambert said, for the sound of Aiden’s laugh in his ear.

And then, as they were nearing the entrance of the cave, a relieved sigh from Aiden, exhale accompanied by a rumble that vibrated through Lambert’s whole ribcage. “Thanks, Wolf.”


End file.
